


Snapshots

by howboutinotdothis



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: F/F, I, M/M, also galaxy gals happens later in the story, connor is still a dick tho, don't know what to say, eventual sincerely three but starts as tree bros, ooc probably???, road trip au, so its really just tree bros at the start, weird format
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 13:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10991565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howboutinotdothis/pseuds/howboutinotdothis
Summary: Before they go off to grad school or to their new jobs, Evan Hansen and Co. decide to take a cross-country road trip.





	Snapshots

**Author's Note:**

> updates will be sporadic af, I really only did this because I wanted to try out a new way of writing or whatever
> 
> based on the [road trip au](https://jaredkleinmanisanerd.tumblr.com/search/road+trip+au) i made with the help of some peeps from discord and tumblr
> 
> comment if you want more I guess??? I'm not really sure if I should continue this

> _The first picture is of Evan, Connor, Alana, and Jared, all in their navy blue graduation gowns. Connor is on the right, pajama pants peeking out from under his gown, with his usual grimace prominent on his face. His shoulders are slumped and his knees are bent in an attempt to close the height gap between himself and Alana, who’s standing directly to his left, up on her tip toes with one of her arms thrown around his shoulders. Her graduation gown is already unzipped, revealing a floral summer dress, and the cords and her golden honors stole are fluttering in the soft breeze. She’s beaming, clearly proud of herself for graduating as the top student in her program. To her left is Evan, hunched over to allow her to rest her other arm around his shoulders, smiling sheepishly into the camera lens. The white collar of his dress shirt and the vibrant green of his striped tie stand out starkly against his graduation gown. Jared’s fingers are poking out from behind his head, tilted slightly to the right in an awkward attempt at doing bunny ears. Jared’s standing to Evan’s left with his other arm behind his back, smiling innocently at the camera. His graduation gown is flapping open in the breeze, revealing his tan cargo shorts and his Legend of Zelda t-shirt._

* * *

 

The ceremony was long. Evan picked at his graduation gown as a member of the faculty droned on and on, reading names of index cards as students scrambled up onto the stage to grab their fake diplomas and shake the hand of the president of the university and some bigwig from the board of trustees.

Alana was the first of their friends to go up, blessed—or maybe cursed, considering she decided to stick around for the whole ceremony instead of bailing right after her name was called—with a surname that starts with a letter early in the alphabet. Connor and Jared—and even Evan, but to a lesser degree—whooped and hollered when her name was called, earning them the stink eye from more than one of the ushers. The camera awaiting the students at the left side of the stage captured Alana smiling and doing a little awkward wave before she returned to her seat, probably pulling her cellphone out from wherever she stashed it under her robe to take pictures of her fellow graduates.

Evan was next. He sucked in a deep breath when the ushers got to his row, standing up jerkily and wiping his sweaty palms on the slippery surface of his graduation gown. He made an aborted movement to mess with his tassel and forced his hand to remain at his side. He looked fine—he _was_ fine. His mother had told him so about a dozen times before they even left the house and then a dozen more on the car ride over. His steps felt awkward and his lips twitched into a tiny, self-deprecating smile as he passed his index card to the woman who would be reading his name. Evan let out all of the air in his lungs in a long, drawn out sigh as the woman read the name of the girl in front of him, which made some balding man from the board of trustees give him an odd look, but Evan couldn’t bring himself to care. He made it. He was mere feet away from being done with college for good. Five steps away from the rest of his life.

Evan crossed the stage without tripping and shook the president’s hand. The man gave him a faint, disinterested smile as he handed him the rolled up blank paper that they gave out just for show, preferring to give the students the real diplomas beforehand. Evan’s real diploma was already propped up on a table in his mother’s living room beside a picture of him and Connor his mother printed out and framed.

The man from the board of trustees merely squeezed his hand before letting him go and then Evan was walking off the stage, almost too wrapped up in his own thoughts to hear Jared, Connor, and Alana cheering and clapping for him. Without looking, Evan knew that Zoe was cheering too, up in the stands with her parents and Evan’s mother. He couldn’t hear her from his spot on the floor of the auditorium, but he still appreciated the gesture.

Evan had just gotten back to his seat when Jared was getting out of his own, looking like a complete doofus with the derp face carefully drawn on his graduation cap in black and white puff paint. Evan remembered the day Jared came over to his house and ransacked his mom’s arts and crafts cabinet to decorate his cap. Evan barely managed to talk him out of painting Pepe the Frog or Spongebob on the cap. Evan still isn’t sure the derp face was better.

Jared vigorously shook the men’s hands on stage before gliding off it in his Heelys and Evan figured that was the most Jared way his friend could have received his fake college diploma. With a meme on his head and Heelys on his feet.

Evan clapped and yelled for his friend and he was pretty sure he heard Connor whooping too even though his boyfriend swore he wasn’t going to make a peep when it was Jared’s turn. Jared winked at the camera, waggling his eyebrows suggestively, and Evan could hear Alana cackling from the front row, phone in the air to record Jared’s antics. Evan was going to have to get her to send him a copy of that.

Finally, it was Connor’s turn. Connor was a mess—a hot mess, but a mess all the same. His hair was a frizzy mess puffing out from under his graduation cap, his gown was too short to cover the plaid pajama pants he decided to wear instead of the navy blue dress pants his mother bought for the occasion, and he wasn’t even wearing real shoes, he was wearing bedroom slippers and Evan was waiting for someone to step on the back of one of them and send Connor tumbling to the floor. Surprisingly, Connor made it to the stage without a hitch, looking bored out of his mind, but a bored, annoyed Connor was better than no Connor at all, Evan supposed. It took a lot of finagling and bargaining to convince Connor to even come to graduation, let alone stay for the whole ceremony.

It was their group’s last opportunity to cheer for someone, so Jared and Alana were even louder than the previous times, yelling and stomping their feet and clapping as Connor offered the men on stage a limp handshake before shuffling off, mustering up an uncomfortable half smile for the camera at the end of the stage. Evan yelled what was supposed to be “go, Connor” but came out sounding like a bunch of nonsense, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. Evan’s heart was pounding and he was sweating like crazy because a display like that calls attention to you and, even after years of counselling and working through his anxiety and learning how to cope properly, Evan doesn’t particularly like calling attention to himself.

The ceremony continues, and now Evan is back to fiddling with his gown while the president talks about their duties as new alumni, et cetera, et cetera. He can feel his cellphone vibrating in the pocket of his khakis and he’s sure their group chat is blowing up with “wow this is boring” and “oh my god we’re graduates!!” and “Jesus when is this guy going to shut up already.” Alana’s probably also already tagged them all in pictures and videos she’s posted from the ceremony, both on her private account and on the Sincerely, Me account. Evan can already imagine the multitude of comments from the underclassmen in the organization congratulating them on making it through and saying how much they’ll miss them next year. The four of them were, according to the new club president, the heart and soul of the organization, after all.

The alma mater plays, distracting Evan from his thoughts. Everybody in the auditorium stands as a girl on stage that Evan vaguely recognizes from one of his trips over to the music school to visit Zoe sings the words, drowning out the awkward mumbling of all the students who don’t know the words. The faculty process out with the board of trustees and then the auditorium falls silent for a moment, everybody waiting to make sure things are officially over before they make a bee line for the door.

When the auditorium starts buzzing with chatter, the students start leaving their seats, the few who threw their hats trying to retrieve them from the concrete floor before they’re trampled. Evan’s accosted by Alana the moment he exits his row.

“Can you believe we just graduated? We were just in high school five minutes ago!” Alana’s voice is high-pitched and breathless and Evan can see tears shining in her eyes. He merely shakes his head, struck mute by the enormity of what just happened, wrapping his arms around her in a heartfelt—albeit a bit awkward—hug. They’re graduates. College graduates. They’re real adults now—adults going to grad school or getting jobs, no longer just children playing at being adults in undergrad.

“Not to ruin the moment, but that’s gay.”

Evan lets Alana go, turning to see Jared pulling his leg out from a folding chair he apparently got it stuck in.

“Jared, this isn’t—that’s not what—you know what, I’m just going to ignore that one.”

“Good choice,” Connor says as he finishes making his way to where they’re standing in the aisle taking up enough space that the people from the front rows are having to shove their way past. His cap is off and he’s pulled his hair into a messy knot at the base of his skull, which tones down the “I don’t give a fuck” vibe he’s giving off a little bit. Not much. The change is infinitesimal, really. “Now, can we get the fuck out of here?”

“Yes, but,” Alana levels Connor and Jared with a stern look, “nobody’s allowed to run off until we’ve gotten some pictures together. And I mean _good_ pictures. Not pictures of Connor flipping the camera off or Jared licking Evan’s face.”

“ _Fine_ , Jesus Christ, can we just _go_?” Connor’s got that look on his face that always precedes him being supremely pissy, so Alana nods and they make their way out of the auditorium, Connor grabbing ahold of Evan’s wrist so he doesn’t lose him in the crowd. Connor’s grip on his arm is a little too tight to be comfortable, but Evan prefers momentary discomfort over having to brave the undulating tide of screeching students and squealing parents by himself. Everything is just—it’s just so _loud_ , and this is the worst part of going to events—it’s the strangers’ breath on his neck, strangers’ bodies pressing against his from all sides, strangers’ voices drowning out his thoughts. It’s _too much_.

Connor drags him straight through the front door of the auditorium and Evan gulps in the fresh air when they pause for Alana and Jared to catch up. It’s still a zoo scene outside, but at least it’s not a confined space anymore. Connor’s hand drops from his wrist to his hand, intertwining their fingers and squeezing Evan’s hand comfortingly. It helps, a little. Crowds are just never going to be Evan’s cup of tea, he guesses.

Alana exits the auditorium, looking a little ruffled. She smiles and waves when she spots them loitering against the wall by the entrance. Jared comes out a few seconds after, shoving the doors open and nearly faceplanting on the ground when an old woman shoves her way past. He’s grumbling to himself as he walks over to join them.

Alana directs them to the parking lot, specifically the part of the parking lot where all of their families parked, where Zoe’s waiting with all their parents. Hugs and kisses and congratulations, and fist bumps in Zoe’s case, are exchanged before Alana’s mother claps her hands and tells them to get together to take a picture.

Alana’s father has one of those fancy cameras that professional photographers use, so he’s designated as the photographer parent, but Evan’s mom and Mrs. Murphy still pull out their phones to get a few pictures of the kids themselves. Zoe stands behind the parents making weird faces in an attempt to get Connor to make an expression besides the pained one he’s currently sporting, but she only succeeds in making Alana giggle and Evan let out a few awkward chuckles.

Soon, they all go their separate ways, Alana’s parents taking her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, Connor’s parents taking him and Zoe to have dinner with their grandparents, and Jared and Evan’s families heading to Evan’s house to have a graduation party with some of Jared’s extended family and Evan’s father and stepfamily.

They won’t be all together again until a week from then when they begin what Alana has labeled their “Epic Summer Road Trip” and what Connor has lovingly nicknamed “Actual Hell on Earth.”

It’s going to be an interesting summer.


End file.
